The ink has barely dried on the reports of how the weekend parcel bomb plot was foiled before the demands for ever tougher security measures are made. The most authoritative Westminster commentators assure us that there is now no question of relaxing existing airport passenger checks – however "completely redundant" they may actually be. The same commentators report that the possibility of any easing in the government's anti-terror legislation is increasingly remote "regardless of the pressure from the Liberal Democrats".

That is the old familiar script for the politics of terror alerts. The terror attacks in London and Glasgow that took place two days after Gordon Brown entered Downing Street in June 2007 led directly to promises of tougher police powers – including the ill-fated proposal to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge. That is the conventional wisdom.

But this is a coalition government that has forsworn that kind of politics. When the new home secretary, Theresa May, announced her review of counter-terrorism laws in July she promised to "put right the failures" of the Labour government and "restore ancient liberties". As such, this is an important moment for the coalition and if they simply react as the conventional Westminster wisdom dictates they are unlikely to dig themselves out of the authoritarian pit Labour revelled in.

At least one former Labour security minister, Tony McNulty, whose fruitless task was to sell 42 days pre-charge detention to parliament, has since repented and argued the party "misjudged control orders, stop and search and others failed to strike the balance between public safety and liberty".

There are plenty of signs Labour is just going to revert to type. The shadow transport secretary, Maria Eagle, was this morning already defending the need for longer queues for passengers at airports despite Ryanair and BA's pleas for redundant and ineffective checks to be dropped.

All the signs are, however, the home secretary is going to avoid such sudden rushes of blood to the head. There will be a review of airport security, particularly involving freight, but ministers will also look again at whether more or less passenger screening measures are needed at airports. They are not ruling out the idea that the airlines may have a point but instead will be guided by what is actually effective as the threat evolves.

As for the wider review of counter-terrorism measures. A stalemate within the cabinet over the future of control orders has delayed any immediate announcement. When the review was set up in July it was anticipated it might report this week. Westminster wisdom would have ensured that would have been difficult.

But now the review is being delayed – possibly until December at the earliest – it could report in a less pressured atmosphere. The security services and the police have made no secret that they are lobbying to keep some of the more draconian measures, including 28 days pre-charge detention and control orders, as "necessary evils". They may now press for the counter-terrorism review to report a lot earlier.